It is well known to provide a game apparatus in which a player piece, such as a ball, is struck and moved over the upper surface of a gameboard from one location to another and into a goal for making a score of the game. The gameboard is relatively small in size so that is can be mounted on a suitable surface, such as a table top or the like.
Several embodiments of this type of game include U.S. Pat. Nos. 829,947 and 1,504,605 and British Pat. No. 2028. Each of these references discloses a gameboard having a player piece, such as a ball or disk, movable over the upper surface of the gameboard by a paddle or stick, the gameboard having spaced pins projecting upwardly from the upper surface thereof to present obstacles to the movement of the player piece. Generally, these gameboards must be leveled because they have flat, hard, smooth upper surfaces which allows the player piece, if it is a ball, to move unrestrictedly over the surface except when the ball strikes one or more of the pins projecting upwardly from the gameboard surface. If the surface is not level, the balls tends to move to the lowest point on the board. Leveling of the board is extremely tedious and time consuming; thus, unless the leveling is sufficiently accurate, the play of the game loses its entertainment value and interest in the game diminishes.
Because of the aforesaid drawback, a need has arisen for an improved game apparatus of the type described which permits the gameboard to be relatively small in size yet does not need to be accurately leveled to use the game apparatus.
Other disclosures in the gameboard art of the type using player pieces or sticks for striking the player pieces include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,624,469 and 3,158,373.